Romans would also find quite weird the Western idea that, if one absolutely must murder a person for the good of the state, then it should be done quickly and cleanly. Why on earth, they might wonder, would you want death to be easy for the criminal? They caused suffering, so they should suffer. Romans wanted people to suffer a lot and suffer publicly. They wanted everyone – everyone – to know that the only rewards of crime were abject humiliation, excruciating pain and, eventually, death.
